Before the semi-final second leg of the Champions League, midfielder Fede Valverde sent a warning to Man City by declaring “Champions League is Real Madrid’s tournament”.
“Playing in the Champions League is special because it’s Real Madrid’s competition. It’s always different from any match. We always have a different energy when we play in this tournament. At Madrid, they always taught us that anything is possible in football. We still have 90 minutes in the second leg and nobody knows what the outcome will be,” Valverde told Diario AS.
Valverde’s confidence is understandable, as the Uruguayan is familiar with Real Madrid’s legendary comebacks. Last season, Los Blancos firmly established the position of “king” upstream in the Champions League with 3 stages to overthrow unimaginable opponents. From PSG, Chelsea to Man City, Carlo Ancelotti’s teachers and students always make the fans burst in the last minutes with a decisive blow.
As for Valverde personally, he is increasingly asserting his irreplaceable role in the Madrid team. The Uruguayan midfielder is also having the best scoring performance of his career. The 24-year-old star possesses almost perfect offensive and defensive skills. As coach Carlo Ancelotti said, Valverde is a modern midfielder who can play almost any position on the pitch. Possessing such a player will help Real a lot on the way to defending the Champions League title this season.
Real Madrid and Man City will have to decide whether to win or lose in the second leg of the Champions League semi-final at the Etihad Stadium on May 18, after a 1-1 draw at the Bernabeu in the first leg. According to a report on Marca, Los Blancos feel confident going into the second leg away from home because they think ” Man City are not better than us”. The players of the royal team were optimistic because they felt that Pep Guardiola’s army did not play too well on the day of the match at the Bernabeu. And again, the experience factor in the Champions League is still the tenth golden thing that is expected to help Real make Man City hate again.
